TEACHER TWITTER TUESDAY!
TEACHER TWITTER TUESDAY!
TEACHER TWITTER TUESDAY!
Go ahead. You try and say it fast three times and see how you do! The most amazing thing happened last Tuesday. I wanted to 'teach' some of my buddies how to Twitter chat. Me being such an expert: NOT!
Well one tweet lead to a pin, which led to an IG image and in under 24 hours we ended up with 46 people all on the Twitter hashtag #TeacherFriends for over an hour. That my friends is the whole point of social networking!
We had a participant from Brazil! A mommy holding her four day old infant! We had people register an account with Twitter and make their first TWEET! We had Twitter Chat Virgins {henceforth to be known as #TCV} and experts alike. WE HAD PRIZES! To say that a good time was had by all is quite an understatement!
Yes. I acted as moderator. Which means I did some homework and had some questions (icebreakers) organized ahead of time. Those brilliant chestnuts are denoted as:
Q1: Tell us where you live and what your weather was like today.
Then the chatting begins as everyone responds with their answer.
A1: I'm in brisk and breezy northern WI and happy to 'meet' everyone tonight.
Now imagine 46 people all answering/typing their response at the same time. It was like a cross between a cocktail party backyard barbecue and fireworks grand finale.
I had recruited two volunteers to act as the welcome wagon and group facilitators. This time last year Kristen and I were hosting a grand bonanza giveaway celebrating each of our blog's fifth anniversary. I have had the opportunity to make an author/illustrator visit to her school. Kristen has recently received national acclaim and honors for her devotion to science and the Kindergarten child. You can follow her blog and on Twitter she is known as @fuzzlady77 on Twitter.
 |
| My Rainbow Welcome by Kristen's Kindergarten |
Kristen has a Twitter 101 'how-to' article with some screen shots of what to look for if you are a #TCV and are navigating for the first time. Thanks for taking the time to spell everything out visually! I know that will help!
That is exactly how I have navigated through Twitter chats over the last year or two!
You just keep refreshing your screen and the feed automatically organizes every tweet, from around the globe, for anyone who has remembered to use the hashtag #TeacherFriends in real time.
Again. We start at 9 PM Eastern Standard Time.
There was some confusion over that.
We had people arriving just as we were saying goodnight.
 |
| That's our Maggie! From Maggie's KinderCorner |
Our other facilitator is Maggie of Maggie's KinderCorner. While we haven't yet met in person. Maggie was the first to host me on a SKYPE visit to an elementary school. She orchestrated her entire K & 1st departments to participate! We had nearly 200 students in their multi-purpose room singing and dancing a la SKYPE. Maggie and Moi are the grannies-in-the-group, but Maggie is totally tech savvy. She has encouraged me to use TweetDeck for 'easier' Twitter navigation in the chat format. I'm going to attempt that for the first time tonight.
One of the happiest surprises of the night is that Kim Vij popped into our chat. The two of us had an incredible day together last spring in Gainesville. Kim is many things: coauthor of "The Educator's Spin on It", a consumate Twitter chat moderator in her own right, PLUS she has well over a million-and-a-HALF followers of her Pinterest collection. Kim taught us how to 'Storify' our evening's ENTIRE CHAT. {I had no idea that was even a possibility.} Kim has agreed to join our triangle and make it a solid square. She has much to teach us!
Here's the ENTIRE chat from last week! If you want to see what you missed!
As you can see, four minds together, united around a cooperative project are so much stronger than my own little efforts! We have decided to make this a weekly endeavor! We know how important Twitter is to finding immediate professional support. We know how intimidating Twitter is, especially the chat concept, where the comaraderie is developed.
We pledge to ALWAYS go overboard in welcoming new #TCVs into our midst. We want to be the warm-welcome, warm-fuzzy group. We will always call ourselves the "Practice" Chat. We want to make it fun and pledge to bring you prizes as incentive!
PLUS we are in the midst of plans to bring you weekly mystery/celebrity Educators. EVERY week a 'new' edu-celebrity to rub elbows with! Just imagine!
Tonight's Theme?
"MISSING out on the VEGAS Experience?
HOMEBODIES UNITE!"
1. Open your Twitter account.
2. Join us at 9 PM Eastern Standard Time!
3. Follow the hashtag #TeacherFriends and win!
 |
| I made a square version for Instagram. Are you following me there? |
No comments:
Post a Comment
I LUV to hear from you! Please leave your thoughts so we can interact!!